OpenGL Support on Nokia N800

[DryLand404]

Is this possible or currently supported?

[aleksandyr]

Short answer: No

Long answer: There's a PowerVR MBX 3D accelerator buried in the N800. Drivers currently do not exist in any useful form (closed-source 2.4 kernel drivers only.) We'd need to get that working before we can provide OpenGL at any reasonable speed.

[DryLand404]

I see what you mean.
No Debian .. http://www.imgtec.com/Downloads/DocumentDownloads/index.asp?Page=PowerVRDrivers.asp
But the drivers source is available for compile.
"source as a RPM or TGZ file to build the drivers for your Linux distribution, by following the instructions in the README file."

Does this indicate that if the driver were compiled properly and working the API would then be usable.

[aleksandyr]

Linux kernel 2.6 introduced major structural changes to the way driver modules are built and loaded. As a result, existing KYRO drivers are not compatible with any Linux kernel whose version is 2.6 or above. To keep using KYRO drivers, users are requested to use the latest available 2.4 Linux kernel version. We have currently no plans of providing drivers supporting updated kernels.

The N770/N800 uses 2.6+ only.

There are also a number of binary chunks in that driver that I'm sure would be a barrier for a porter.

The only doc I know of on converting from 2.4 to 2.6:
http://www.intel.com/cd/ids/developer/asmo-na/eng/301689.htm

[aleksandyr]

Starting points:
From the linux-on-dreamcast project, a PowerVR2->FB driver. The PowerVR MBX is a "Series 3" chip, however...
http://linuxsh.cvs.sourceforge.net/linuxsh/linux/drivers/video/pvr2fb.c?view=markup

The Dell Axim X50 uses a PowerVR MBX derivative, the Intel 2700G which appears to be the same chip.
http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/DellAximX50Hardware

[aleksandyr]

Also, the PepperPad 2 has a binary-only driver. Probably useless unless we do some true FM work...

[torx]

Is this in the roadmap?? Or is this something we paid for but will never come of use?

[zerojay]

Is this in the roadmap?? Or is this something we paid for but will never come of use?

No and no.

[Nik]

I wonder if useful performance could be gotten from a software implementation like Vincent (http://ogl-es.sourceforge.net/) or Mesa.

[Nik]

I'm guessing that there's also the problem with video bandwidth that was discussed around mplayer. IIRC the bandwidth from the CPU to the external graphics chip is not fast enough to transfer 800x480 video at a smoothly animated rate. 400x240 can be used and pixel-doubled at the other end.

Since the PowerVR is on the CPU, I guess any driver for that would have the same problem.

[qole]

I wonder if useful performance could be gotten from a software implementation like Vincent (http://ogl-es.sourceforge.net/) or Mesa.

Software Mesa works, but very slowly. Just tried it with a 3D Tron Cycle game (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=193007#post193007).

[qole]

OK, here's that GLX Gears demo running. I get about 10 fps, using the Mesa software rendering.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3080/2587752983_3081fe4ed0_o.png (http://www.flickr.com/photos/qole2/2587752983/)

EDIT: Interestingly, my demo runs much better than this one (http://unrealvoodoo.org/hiteck/blog/graphics/opengl-es-for-maemo/).

[Bundyo]

The other one is on 2007 with the lesser CPU freq...

[qole]

The other one is on 2007 with the lesser CPU freq...

And also, his version is written in python. That might reduce speed.

[scumgrief]

I'm gonna eat the fat cats who don't wanna open source the drivers or at least give them to Nokia to put in the OS install...